... Dispersal is a fundamental process that facilitates population and range expansion by providing a mechanism for colonization and metapopulation linkages. Yet quantifying the dispersal process, particularly long-distance dispersal events, has been inherently difficult due to technological and observational limitations. Additionally, dispersal distance calculated as the straight-line distance betwee ...

... BACKGROUND: Human food subsidies can provide predictable food sources in large quantities for wildlife species worldwide. In the boreal forest of Fennoscandia, gut piles from moose (Alces alces) harvest provide a potentially important food source for a range of opportunistically scavenging predators. Increased populations of predators can negatively affect threatened or important game species. As ...

... Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) shares similar prey preferences and co-occurs with several other carnivores, and is together with pine marten (Martes martes), the most common mesocarnivore in the northern boreal forest. Voles are important prey for both species, but it is unclear to what extent they compete for the same food resources in winter. Here, we use 2139 km and 533 km of meticulous snow tracking ...

... Variation in the distribution and abundance of animals in space and time are key concepts of population ecology. We studied these variations in a population of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in the tundra and taiga of northern Sweden. We analysed 12 years (1974–1985) of snow tracking data from a large area of 65,375 km². Specifically, we evaluated to what extent the distribution of red foxes was explai ...

... Hunters that have options to hunt in different areas should evaluate their previous hunting success when they decide where to hunt. Following optimal foraging theory for non-human predators, we investigated if hunting success and density of other hunters on the hunting area will affect the probability of return to the same area, and if such behavioural changes will result in a higher hunting succe ...

... Hunters' preferences for different harvest principles and harvest regulations such as season length and harvest quotas provide important knowledge for wildlife management. We report results from a survey of 2788 willow ptarmigan hunters regarding commonly used harvest-principles and -regulations. A harvest quota strategy was the most preferred principle. Hunters were in general more positive to an ...

... Wildlife harvest management requires an understanding of hunter behavioral interactions with the game. Hunter harvest is indicated to be more dependent on experience and attitudes than game abundance. We tested how the grouse hunter's bag size was affected or not by having local knowledge of the hunting ground, grouse density, and distribution. The local knowledge was acquired through approximatel ...

... Annual variation in harvested animals (hereafter bag size) is often used as an index of population abundance when investigating population dynamics. Few studies have evaluated how well bag size tracks population change despite its widespread use. Two recent studies on grouse harvest statistics have reached contrasting conclusions. Th ere is limited information about the functional response of hunt ...

... The effects of landscape composition on species and populations have become increasingly important due to large and rapid habitat changes worldwide. In particular, concern is raised for several forest-dwelling species such as capercaillie and black grouse, because their habitats are continuously changing and deteriorating from human development. Conservation of these species is linked to sustainab ...

... Using radio-telemetry we investigated natal dispersal, adult home ranges and site fidelity of mountain hares Lepus timidus in northern Sweden. We captured 48 leverets from 20 litters while these were still suckling and radio-tracked them for up to 37 months. Leverets showed limited dispersal; < ⅓⅓moved far enough to leave the home range of an average adult female. We radio-collared and tracked 73 ...

... Willow ptarmigan Lagopus lagopus is considered a popular small game species by many hunters in Scandinavia. A simple harvest strategy would be to prohibit harvest in parts of the total area. We used a spatial model of a fluctuating population of willow ptarmigan, divided into 25 subareas to investigate the possible advantages of buffer zones in managing harvest. We let the breeding success be the ...

... We analysed the spatial and temporal dynamics of chick production of willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in the Swedish and Norwegian mountain region using harvest data covering 24––38 years and line-transect counts covering 6––10 years from the period 1960––2003. Juvenile and adult grouse were counted in the bag of harvested willow grouse in late August and throughout September at six sites in Sweden a ...

... Wolverine Gulo gulo populations have a low reproductive potential and are thus relatively sensitive to changes in survival rates. Consequently, knowledge about survival and mortality causes in juvenile wolverines is important for a sound management of the species. We estimated survival rates for juvenile wolverines and evaluated the relative importance of intraspecific predation compared to other ...

... We investigated the occurrence and distribution of multi-annual cycles in abundance of mountain hare populations across a wide area of their range in northern Europe. We analysed 125 time-series of mountain hare abundance indexed from hunting bag records and questionnaire responses from Scotland, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. We also reanalysed 17 previously published time-series based on hunti ...

... Stochasticities in population dynamics as well as uncertainties in parameters often make it difficult to obtain reliable predictions of future population fluctuations. Here we use a long‐term data set to model the fluctuations of a Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) population in Central Sweden. We use this model to examine how different harvest strategies affect mean annual yield, and how these r ...

... A recent increase in the area open to hunters in the Swedish mountains has directed attention to the possibility of overharvesting and greater wildlife disturbance. Using radio-telemetry, the movements of willow grouse Lagopus lagopus in a heavily hunted area were compared to movements in areas where hunting was prohibited. Although hunter density was higher than the regional average, no significa ...